HOW TO PRONOUNCE
cairn
/kɛ(ə)ɹn/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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What does cairn mean?
noun
- A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument.
- A pile of stones heaped up as a landmark, to guide travelers on land or at sea, or to arrest attention, as in surveying, or in leaving traces of an exploring party, etc.
- A cairn terrier.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/kɛ(ə)ɹn/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Here was a level spot some twenty yards across, in the middle of which stood a heap of stones or cairn.
The men had killed a seal at the edge of the sea-ice and placed the meat on a cairn for future use.
More book examples (3)
Before leaving we rebuilt the cairn, and deposited in it a record of the work of the Franklin search party to date.
A few yards distant rose a solid nine-foot cairn surmounted by a black canvas-and-wire flag, six feet higher, well stayed with steel wire.
Her great bald summit, clear of trees and pasture, a cairn of quartz and cinnabar, rejected kinship with the dark and shaggy wilderness of lesser hill-tops.